Eileen Hull Field Notes Junk Journal

I'm back again this week, but this time with a junk journal using a whole bunch of Eileen Hull Sizzix Dies, a whole bunch, as well as a lot of Tim Holtz Idea-ology and vintage goods for the inside. Eileen challenged her Design Team and those of us who are Educators to make a journal and focus on the inside, the guts as I like to say. Good thing I made a junk journal, because I decided to sew the majority of it, and the sewing machine decided to give me fits, so there is absolutely no perfection in this messy album, and I'm not very good on the guts of albums and journals. I'm more of a cover girl. ;0) This journal will be on going as well, as I have a slew of pages to fill that will take some time, so I am sure I'll be back someday to show you the rest of the guts. Until then, this is what I have so far, and it's a very long photo heavy post.  Enjoy!

 

I used heavy felt material for the base of the journal, the bones.. It's quite thick and rigid compared to regular felt. I adhered it together with two sided tape, and then added stretchy string to hold the pages in the middle. I saved all the scraps from the die cuts to use as the tabs for the inside of the journal.

Using the Notebook Pocket Die, I die cut with more thick felt this time in a grayish color. I only used the front area of the die, and not the back with all the tabs as I sewed this flat, so keep that in mind. I sewed the shiplap fabric to the front of the panels of the pocket. Then I die cut the words 'one' and 'two' in felt and hand-stitched (yup, you read hand-stitched...lol) those to strips from Idea-ology Stitched Scraps, and onto the base of the pockets using black thread. I am in love with those strips. I used every piece from one package on this journal.

After both of the pockets were finished on the inside panels, I started the front of the album, that way no stitches would show through on the inside covers. I cut a panel of the shiplap fabric to fit the front of the album, but DID NOT adhere it until the end. I stitched everything on first. I began with the doily die cut that I used the heavy gray felt with. I only used about 3/4 of the doily, and stitched two circles around the inside of the die to hold it on. Then I die cut the cup, to use as a pitcher, out of regular felt. I stitched it over the doily. I added pieces of the Stitched Scraps to the pitcher, and the spine (or where the spine is going to be). It was at this point that I was falling in love with this. There is just something special about sewing.

Then, I discovered something MARVELOUS. Something I probably already know, but forgot. REMNANT RUBS WORK ON FABRIC!!! I knew they worked on canvas obviously, but on felt?!! I was blown away!!! Seriously, blown away. I was so excited to know this, and tried the rubs on every piece of fabric I used in the this journal. THEY ALL WORKED. Remnant Rubs really transformed this from cool to WOW! for me. I was so worried about all the journaling in this, and thought I would have to either stitch or hand write, but the Remnant Rubs saved the day. Anyway I digress. Next, I die cut the 'journal' using the heavy felt, and hand-stitched that on with a light blue thread (the only time I used anything but black thread).

Then came the flowers. I die cut the Heart Petals with layers of fabric and heavy felt, and layered them up, making several stacks of flowers for the outside and inside. I adhered the layers together by hand-stitching a button to the center, and then stitching to the cover. I wanted pops of red, but only had a few sheets of this weather proof type of fabric that I have no idea where it came from, but I die cut the pansy flowers out of it, and stitched a black potbelly type button to the center, and then onto the cover. Then I needed leaves, so I die cut leaves from the Spring Leaves Die, out of a brownish colored felt. I just love this die as there are many leaves to choose from. Then I hand-stitched those leaves on randomly around the flowers. Then I finally stitched this piece of shiplap onto the base cover piece, leaving the blue from the felt being seen around the edges. I scruffed up the edges of the shiplap fabric to give it a more shabby feel. I am in love with this cover...yup, I am a cover girl! Oh and, as I was sewing the cover on, I added the tulle and velvet ribbon to the back of the album to wrap around and hold the album closed. I had a large bee charm from my stash, and tied to onto the tulle ribbon.

Then it was time for the guts of this album. I cut six pieces of each of the fabric prints I used, plus I used left overs of the soft felt pieces. So once I stitched the fabric pieces together, I ended up with 13 pieces for the pages. The pages would obviously be folded in half around the stretchy bands, so really I had 26 pages. Ugh, so many I know. I left the tops of the stitched pages unstitched, so I could hand-stitch things onto the fronts and backs of the pages so the stitches would not be seen on the other side. Confusing for sure, and I did mess up a few times, but I am all about details. ANYWAY, I used tags from all the Tim Holtz Demos over the summer for the main parts of the pages. I adhered and stitched on the tags as well as ephemera from Idea-ology and some from my stash for the guts of the album and on the tags. I fell in love with the whole Idea-ology Field Notes Ephemera line. There are so many butterflies and flowers to choose from. These pieces really transformed every part of this for me, and made the pages so easy to put together.  I adhered using Collage Medium and two-sided tape as well as stitching. I inked every piece of ephemera as well, and added more tulle for the tag tops. Lots more Remnant Rubs were used throughout, as well as scrap fabric pieces to make plain pockets. Nothing was formal about this, just willy-nilly. I truly had fun putting all the pieces together, and I am no where near finished, so the pages you will see below still need stuff in my opinion...remember it's on going. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies: 

(Die Cut Machine, Scissors, Sewing Machine, Needle w/Black, Light Blue Thread, Rub-on Tool, Ink Blending Tool, Two Sided Tape)

-Sizzix Eileen Hull XL Scoreboards Die: Journal, Notebook Pocket

-Elastic String, Heavy Felt, Regular Felt, Shiplap Fabric, Flower Script Fabric, Tulle Ribbon, Velvet Ribbon, Mother of Pearl Buttons, Small Black Buttons

-Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Fabric: Memoranda

-Sizzix Eileen Hull Bigz Die: Lace Medallion Doily, Mug and Spoon, Spring Leaves, Flower Layers with Heart Petals, Pansy Flower

-Sizzix Eileen Hull Thinlits: Homemade Alphabet, Journaling Words

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock Tags: #8

-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Stitched Scraps, Specimen Remnant Rubs, Tiny Text Remnant Rubs, Field Notes Ephemera Pack, Field Notes Snippets Ephemera Pack, Botanical Layers, Paper Dolls

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Speckled Egg, Gathered Twigs

-Ranger Tim Holtz Collage Medium: Matte

-Vintage Floral Postcards, Floral Ephemera, Bee Charm

-Faber-Castell Pitt Pens

If you are looking for themes for journals, measurements for use in Eileen's journal dies, journal inspiration, or just entertainment, then visit Eileen's blog for several informational posts the last few weeks, as well as links to so many blogs filled with beautiful journals.

I'll be back again soon. Until then, I hope your hands get creatively dirty!

Wendy Vecchi Stamp, Die, and Stencil Storage Binder

Hello everyone! Every year after Creativation, the Crafty Cave overflows with new goods launched at the show, and once I've organized I can finally play. This week, I've surrounded myself with some new goods from Ranger and Wendy Vecchi...delightful new product (yay more flowers!) and finally some dies!  Wendy has come out with a collection of value packs that contain acrylic stamps with coordinating dies and stencils, so I needed to figure out a way to store them. And with the a little help from Sizzix, here's what I came up with, plus it's functional Art!

Sizzix has all sorts of sizes of excellent quality storage envelopes for dies, so I used the 6 7/8 x 5 inch size to store Wendy's sets. I punched a hole in the corner, and added the label from the package so I know the name and product number for reference. They fit perfectly in Wendy's Stencil Binder. You can see my other binder in the upper left corner that I use to store all her stencils.

To decorate the binder I started out by using White Gesso to cover the surfaces so colors pop better.

I used the scalloped circle to ink in a sunrise using Wendy's Blendable Dye Inks. However, the Gesso made the surface so slick for these water based inks, and it didn't want to stick like I wanted to, but I had another plan that you will see below.

I inked in the sky with the inks, using sticky notes to separate the sky from the land. I also stamped in Wendy's new Register Background Stamp using her Archival. Then I rubbed on some Perfect Card Adhesive over the sun to keep that ink in place.

For the grass area, I inked over it with the Dye Inks and stamped over it with the Tiny Floral Background Stamp in Archival.

I added Wendy's new Washi Tape to the bottom and between the sky and grass. I inked the edges of the binders with Jet Black Archival. To make sure the rest of the ink didn't move I sealed the binders with Workable Fixatif...that was the trick and worked perfectly, as well as gave a nice sheen. I stamped the tree from the Art From Home stamp set from Wendy and Stamper's Anonymous using Fern Green Archival, but it just wasn't dark enough for me, so I stamped it again using Tim's Distress Paints, over and over again until I liked it. I painted in the branches and trunks.

I inked over the house from her coordinating  Mat Minis, using the Dye Ink, and went around the windows with a white pen. I added white vellum to the back for the windows, and filled them in with Glossy Accents. I made steps...sort of...with more washi tape, and added shadows with a black pen. Then I added on the fence pieces. I LOVE all her Mat Minis!

I used three of the new sets of Stamps, Dies, and Stencils for the flowers in the pots, die cutting them from Perfect Cardstock and inked and stamped them in. I added more embellishment with the pens, Perfect Adhesive, and Enamel Accents to finish it off.

Supplies: (Support Your Brick and Mortar Stores!!!)

(Scissors, Hole Punch, Craft Sheet, White Paint Brush, Sticky Notes, Washi Tape)

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stamp, Die, Stencil Set: A Million Thanks, Country Flowers, Flower Pot, Flowers Say It All

-Sizzix Storage Envelopes: 6 7/8 x 5 inches

-Stamper's Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Art Parts: Stencil Binder

-Ranger Dina Wakley Media Gesso: White

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Blendable Dye Ink: Buttercup, Sunflower, Orange Blossom, Red Geranium, Bluebird, Thistle, Peat Moss, Fern Green, Watering Can

-Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool with Several Foams

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Perfect Card Adhesive

-Stamper's Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Background Stamp: Register, Tiny Floral

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink: Forget Me Not, Fern Green

-Ranger Wonder Tape: 1/4 Inch

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Washi Tape: #1, #2

-Ranger Glossy Accents

-Krylon Workable Fixatif

-Stamper's Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Stamp Set: Art From Home

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint: Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Walnut Stain

-Stamper's Anonymous Wendy Vecchi Mat Minis: Art From Home Coordinates, Picket Fences, Tiny Stars

-White Vellum

-Sakura Gelly Roll Pen: White, Black

-Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black, Pale Ochre

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Perfect Cardstock Panels: White

-Ranger Detail Blending Tool

-Ranger Foam Tape: White

-Ranger Wendy Vecchi Enamel Accents: Leaf Green

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all of you!
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

An Autumn Art Journal Spread Over at Ranger Ink

Hello All! Today, I have a tutorial over on the Ranger Ink blog showing how to make this Playing In The Autumn Leaves Art Journal spread using lots of Ranger's Paint Dabbers and Dye Inks, as well as lots of Dina Wakley goodies. It's been a while since I've shown anything in my Art Journal, so it's about time. I hope you pop on over, and here are a few more...okay a lot more... photos in case you do. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for popping over and for looking here everyone! I wish you the best Autumn season ever!

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!